Many people spend time outdoors at a pool in order to relax and cool off during periods of warm weather. Children in particular enjoy playing and swimming in pools. There are a variety of pool toys for children that can help them to develop their swimming skills, diving skills, and motor skills, while also having fun at the same time. These toys can include inflatable rafts, water slides, and water blasters, among many others.
However, children may easily become bored from simply swimming or playing in a pool and require new or additional toys to play with in the pool. Therefore, there exists a need for a tipping bucket apparatus that can be removably attached at a pool to provide amusement and enjoyment for children. The tipping bucket apparatus is particularly advantageous as it periodically dumps water in a waterfall effect, which stimulates children to create a multitude of games revolving around the tipping bucket apparatus.
Devices have been disclosed in the prior art that relate to pool toys, such as water squirting and water dumping devices. These include devices that have been patented and published in patent application publications. Some of these devices provide a pool ladder with a means for spraying water onto the feet of an individual. Other devices provide a plurality of poles that distribute water into a tipping bucket for pouring water onto the occupants of a pool. These devices, however, fail to provide a device attached to a pool ladder having a receptacle for dumping water onto individuals in a pool.
The present invention provides a bucket tipping apparatus configured to fill a receptacle and periodically dump water collected within the receptacle. The bucket tipping apparatus comprises a receptacle pivotally mounted to the upper end of a frame, wherein the frame can be secured to a support surface, such as the ladder of a pool. The receptacle is pivotally attached to each upper end via a spring-biased pivoting rod. A nozzle disposed above the receptacle is fluidly connected to a water pump via a hollow tube attached to the frame. The nozzle is configured to disperse fluid into the receptacle until the receptacle reaches a tipping point, wherein the receptacle is configured to tilt downwardly and dump the water before returning to the original position to repeat the process.
It is therefore submitted that the present invention is substantially divergent in design elements from the prior art, and consequently it is clear that there is a need in the art for an improvement to bucket tipping apparatuses. In this regard, the instant invention substantially fulfills these needs.